Pages

11/23/11

On The Eve of Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. It’s not the food (though I love the food!), it’s the memories. It’s creating new memories and reliving old memories.

I remember the very very long drive when I was very very little to get to Grandma’s house to spend Thanksgiving with Grandma Elsie and Papa. I remember eating lots and lots and lots of olives. I still love olives. It isn’t Thanksgiving without a relish tray with olives.

After my grandparents moved “back home” to Kentucky, we didn’t spend Thanksgiving with them anymore but my parents still made it special. My mom always made a turkey and to this day I still crave her stuffing. My homemade stuffing is basically my tribute to my mother. It’s simple but well loved.

Each of the last 18 Thanksgivings have been wonderful even if I can’t remember each one exactly. Honeybear and I had been a couple for nearly a year when we celebrated our first Thanksgiving together 18 years ago. (Tomorrow will be the 19th Thanksgiving that we’ve had together and we’ve never missed one! That is incredible considering he was active duty military for the first 10 years of our marriage!).

17 years ago we celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. It was just the two of us. I roasted a chicken instead of a turkey. A year later we celebrated thanksgiving with a couple of other military families and a baby Boobear joined us.

Two years later we spent Thanksgiving with family. Baby twins held everyone’s attention. We had so much to be thankful for that year. Supergirl had survived against all the odds but she still had a long, hard road ahead of her.

Tomorrow, my husband and will celebrate our 19th Thanksgiving together. I’m looking forward to a fun day with my family. A few years ago we started playing board games all day. The girls have already been planning which games we’ll play while the turkey cooks.

I have much to be thankful for this year. My husband is still employed. Supergirl continues to do well with heart and other health issues. The other girls are, for the most part, healthy. We have a roof over our head, food to eat, clothes to wear. We are abundantly blessed with wonderful friends.